Stream of Memories
by WaterBendingQueen88
Summary: Ren and her teammates, Hidden Mist village shinobi, are sent to the Hidden Leaf Village to take part in the chunin exam. There, she comes face to face with many painful memories of her past that she didn't quite remember. The one who's trigerring it all is none other than the feared Gaara of the Sand.
1. A Chapter Begins: The Chunin Exam!

All was quiet as Konohamaru looked up at the one that he had collided with. It was obviously male, and clad in in black clothing, all the way up to his cat eared hat. His face was covered in purple paint lines, but that didn't make his sneer any less menacing. "Do you need something?"

The girl next to him was about fifteen. She had blonde hair and cerulean eyes. Her hair was pulled up into four ponytails. She was dresses in a lilac dress and there was a large fan strapped to her back.

The older boy picked the smaller boy up by his shirt. "So, does this hurt, punk?"

The girl moved forward but did not stop her companion. "Put him down, Kankuro, or you know you'll pay for it later."

"Hey, I'm sorry," Sakura apologized, trying to diffuse the tense situation. "The whole thing was my fault."

She appeared to be slightly afraid as she watched the newcomers, wondering who they were.

"You better take your hands off him right now!" Naruto demanded.

Kankuro smirked. "We've got a few minutes before he gets here. Let's mess with these punks, huh?"

Konohamaru groaned and kicked at his captor. "Let go of me, you jerk!"

"You're feisty, but not for long..."

Naruto felt fire throughout his whole body and ran for Kankuro. "Put him down!"

Kankuro chuckled and his eyes zeroed in on the charging blonde. With what seemed only to be a twitch of his fingers, Naruto's feet were pulled out from underneath him, sending him to the ground, flat on his back.

He looked up at the other boy. "What the... What was that?!"

"You're a Leaf Genin, too? Looks like your village is full of wimps."

"Konohamaru!" his teammates cried.

"Hey, cut it out! It hurts!" he cried.

In a second, Naruto was back on his feet. "That's it! Drop him now or I take you apart! You got that, fool?"

Just as fast, Sakura had him in a choke hold. "You're the fool! Making threats isn't going to help, Naruto!"

Kankuro looked at Naruto with disgust. "You're annoying, all of you. I don't like runt or any other scrawny weaklings. So when a wimp like this starts shooting off his mouth, I just wanna break them in half."

Naruto and Sakura gasped and stared on with expressions of horror, while Konohamaru's friends whimpered.

Temari sighed and turned her head away. "Ah, fine. I'm not involved in any of this, okay?"

"First, I'll take care of this little squirt, then I'll waste the other one." Kankuro said.

He pulled back his fit and prepared to hit Konohamaru. Naruto dashed out. Suddenly, and without a clear cause, Kankuro dropped the child with a pained cry. At the sound of something hitting the ground, he looked down and saw a pebble. He turned his head at the sound of another pebble being tossed up and then caught again, to see a raven haired boy in a tree.

"You're a long way from home, and you're way out of your league." the boy said.

"Sasuke!" The pink haired ninja cried happily.

"Eugg..." Naruto groaned annoyed.

The boy wore a blue T-shirt with white shorts. His hair was spiked up and oddly enough it looked like a bird. It was just missing a head.

"Naruto!" Konohamaru cried as he rushed back to his idol.

"Oh, great." Kankuro groaned. "Another wimp to tick me off."

Sasuke answered by crushing the other pebble he held. "Get lost."

"Hey, punk. Get down here. You're the kind of pesky snot I hate the most. All attitude and nothing to back it up."

He pulled the bundle off his back and set it to the side. Temari watched in shock as he did. "What? You're going to use the Crow for this?"

Suddenly, a massive sword appeared, right in front of the black clothed boy. Everyone looked around for where the sword could have possibly come from, Naruto being the first to spot the one who had thrown it. Up in a tree to the right of the one where Sasuke sat was a team of three. The one with a big smirk who clearly was the owner of the sword was a male with long black hair. Beside him were two girls, one with long brown hair, and the other with long blue hair.

The girl with the blue hair was sitting cross-legged with a solitary, but disapproving look on her face.

"MORE of them?" Kankuro nearly whined, before sneering. "Fine! I'll take care of all of you with this!"

"ICE RELEASE!"

In a flash, the brown haired girl shot ice at the boy's hand. Upon making contact, the ice quickly spread from his hand to the mummified object, freezing them together.

"What the heck?!" He cried.

Naruto and his teammates all looked to the girl with various expressions of shock.

"She can use ice like Haku!" Naruto commented.

The blue-haired girl, looked to Naruto when she heard him say Haku.

"You," the brunette said. "How do you know Haku?"

Naruto could only frown. "We just met him on our last mission..."

Kankuro glared at the newcomers and with a little maneuvering and force, broke free of the ice. "It doesn't matter how many of you there are. I'll take you all down, you wimps!"

"Kankuro. Back off." A low voice came from the the other side of the tree, opposite Sasuke. Everyone looked over to see a redheaded boy. The funny thing was that he was upside-down. There were rings around his pupil-less sea-foam eyes, the kanji symbol for 'love' on his forehead, and had a massive gourd strapped to his back.

"You're an embarrassment to our village," the boy continued.

Kankuro wiped his head around to see the boy whose hair that looked like fire. "Hey, Gaara," He smiled nervously.

Gaara looked down on his teammate. "Have you forgotten the reason we came all the way here?"

"I know, I-I mean they challenged us. They started the whole thing, really. See, here's what happened-" Kankuro stuttered.

Gaara obviously didn't want to hear it. "Shut up or I'll kill you!"

Kankuro had been defeated, cowering behind an obvious fake smile full of cold fear. "Ah, right. I was totally out of line. I'm, I'm sorry Gaara. I was totally out of line."

The boy, Gaara, turned his attention to the Leaf shinobi who were standing there, stunned by the turn of events. "I'm sorry, for any trouble he caused."

"That's alright," the blue-haired girl from the other tree said. "It was a misunderstanding."

The boy next to her looked at the brown-haired girl. "Sakuya, that guy got Ren to speak."

"Pretty strange, isn't it, Shachi?" Sakuya replied to her teammate, also wondering how that strange red-haired boy got their shy, quiet friend to talk.

Ren's attention was fully focused on Gaara. There was something unusual about him, especially how he was so easily able to get up on that tree without any of them noticing. He, on the other hand, was more focused on Sasuke, Shachi, and Sakuya who all revealed some of their abilities. To him, they seemed like worthy opponents, and that's all he cared about. After a few moments, he disintegrated into sand and reappeared in front of Temari and Kankuro, his back to the Leaf shinobi.

"Let's go. We didn't come here to play games," Gaara said coldly to his siblings.

Kankuro, appearing to be frightened by the sand user, answered immediately. "A-Alright… sure… I get it…"

"We should get going, too, " Shachi said to his two female teammates.

Before any of them even took a step away, a high-pitched voice stopped them. "Hold on!"

Ren's team got down from the tree, facing the owner of the voice, Sakura. However, Gaara's team didn't look like they had any intention to stop. This made Sakura insist further, with a louder voice. "Hey!"

This time, she was able to get their attention, as they all stopped in their tracks. Temari answered her with annoyance in her voice. "What?"

"I can tell from your headband that you come from the Village Hidden in the Sand. And you," she diverted her gaze to Shachi, "You and your teammates come from the Village Hidden in the Mist."

"I see you've studied your geography," Shachi answered her mockingly, which earned him a glare from Sakura.

"I know that the we're allies, but no shinobi is allowed in another's village without permission," Sakura said with a hint superiority.

Ren, Sakuya, and Shachi looked at each other in disbelief. That didn't stop Sakura from continuing what she had to say. "So state your purpose, and it better be good!"

Temari, who seemed to have taken the responsibility of answering Sakura's constant questions, answered her once again, the annoyance not fading away even a bit from her voice. "Really… Have you guys been living under a rock or what? You don't know what's going on, do you?" She then took out her chunin admission pass. "We have permission. Of course you're correct, we are Hidden Sand genin, our home is the Land of the Wind, and we're here for the chunin exams. Get the picture?"

"Well, she pretty much explained why we're here, too," Shachi said to no one in particular. He then turned to Sakura. "Except that we're from the Hidden Mist, Land of Water."

The blonde haired boy looked confused from the beginning of the encounter. "The chunin exams? What's that?"

"You gotta be kidding me..." Sakuya sighed in exasperation. Ren was pretty curious about that blonde boy. He knew Haku. How? She didn't know, but she wanted to find out.

"Well, I never heard of any chunin exams, believe it."

This time, his ignorance earned him a mocking chuckle from Temari. "Heh, I believe it alright… That you're totally clueless."

Ren let out a small giggle that only her teammates noticed. She was surprising them more and more today. First she talked to a total stranger, and now she giggled?

The kids that were with Naruto explained to him what the chunin exams were all about, telling him that every genin needed to take these exams to become full-fledged chunin. "Oh! Well, why didn't you say so? I am so there!"

That last remark made Gaara snicker, and, without saying anything, he began walking away, followed by his teammates. Just then, Sasuke, who was still on the tree, came down, and called out to him. "Hey, you, identify yourself!"

Temari turned around, with a smile that was much sweeter than what her personality showed earlier. "Hm? You mean me?"

"No, him," Sasuke pointed at Gaara, "the guy with the gourd on his back."

Gaara turned around, and looked at Sasuke. "My name is Gaara of the Desert. I'm curious about you, too. Who are you?"

"I am Sasuke Uchiha."

"Gaara…" Ren whispered quietly under her breath. She didn't think it was loud, but apparently, Gaara heard it, since he looked her way. They both kept eye contact for a few seconds, before he broke it and looked at her two teammates. "I'm actually curious about the Hidden Mist team, as well."

"What if we don't feel like giving you our names?" Shachi said to Gaara, trying to put up a tough front.

"I'm Ren. This is Shachi, and this is Sakuya." Ren answered Gaara before her teammates could process what was happening. They were both speechless at how much more upfront Ren had gotten with that Sand shinobi.

There was a moment of silence, filled with a lot of tension, that followed the short introductions. Ren didn't take her eyes off Gaara. Him, on the other hand, was having a staring contest with the Uchiha boy.

The silence was soon broken by Naruto. "Hi there! I bet you're dying to know my name, right?"

Gaara blinked at the loud voice, and replied quietly, "I couldn't care less."  
>His team then turned around and left.<p>

"Let's go girls, we need to find the place we're staying at," Shachi said to his two teammates.

"Yeah," Sakuya replied, "let's go, Ren."

As they got further from the group of Leaf shinobi, Ren started talking more openly to her teammates. "I wonder who that blonde kid was… And how does he know Haku?"

"I'm wondering the same thing, Ren," Sakuya replied to her.

"How come you've become so talkative all of a sudden, anyway?" Shachi suspiciously questioned his teammate.

"Because," Ren looked down, "they're interesting."

Shachi looked confused and not really convinced at Ren's answer. "I guess..."

"Enough useless talk, and let's just find that place that's supposed to accommodate all the contestants of the chunin exams," Sakuya said, while looking at the directions on her chunin pass.

"I guess we should hurry," Shachi sighed, "apparently we're supposed to check in for the first exam in a few hours."

Without saying anything more, they all focused on finding the place where they'll be staying at.

Later, after finding a place, Ren was just finishing her tea when the team's sensei, Aoi, walked in. He smiled when he saw her.

"Ren, could you do me a favor and give this letter to the Hokage?" He asked.

"Sure sensei." Ren shrugged.

As she entered the Hokage's office she noticed the three siblings from before. They sat in the waiting room, seemingly bored. She walked over to the Jonin by the door. The guard glared at Ren coldly. She made herself comfortable on one of the chairs by the three siblings.

She noticed how Kankuro kept glancing her way. It made her slightly uncomfortable. If he had something to say, he should come out and say it, instead of just staring. After a while, he finally opened his mouth. "So you're really from the Village Hidden in the Mist, huh?"

Ren simply nodded in affirmation to his question. She didn't even turn her head his way. Anyone would be able to tell that she is from the wristbands that had her village symbol on them. She preferred wearing those instead of the usual headbands. Was he trying to start a conversation with such an obvious question? For Kankuro it certainly beat sitting there for hours, not saying or doing a single thing.

"Not much of a talker are you…" Kankuro sighed.

Ren didn't give any reaction to that statement. She was just glad he found out about that so that he'd leave her alone.

"Man, how long do we have to wait to get in there?" Kankuro started whining.

Temari scoffed. "Quit your complaining. It won't do any good in this situation."

This whole time, Gaara was quietly observing the girl with the icy blue hair. She was an odd one. She didn't seem like the type to answer people, but, for some reason, she had answered him two times, almost immediately. Would she do that a third time?

"You've come to see the Hokage?" Gaara slowly asked her. His siblings were awed by his sudden interest in someone else's business. He wasn't usually like that.

Ren answered him, just like she did twice before that day. "Yes, I have something to deliver."

Even though her replies were brief, it was a considerable effort for her to actually respond to someone she practically didn't know.

After an hour of waiting, someone stepped out of the Hokage's office. It was a man in blue robes. Ren guessed that this was the Kazekage.

He was probably there for official business concerning the chunin exam. It seemed like he wouldn't be staying there for too long, however. According to how every previous chunin exam, he will probably show up again for the final round. In the meantime, he'd probably go back to his village to take care of the daily duties of a Kage. It must've been a long road coming. That just showed how important those chunin exams really are. The Mizukage would've come, but the trip is way longer than it is between the Village Hidden in the Sand and the Village Hidden in the Leaves. She couldn't afford to leave her village for such a long time.

Right when the Kazekage came out of the office, Kankuro and Temari got up and bowed in respect. Gaara on the other hand, didn't even move a muscle. Of course, Ren didn't either, since the Kazekage didn't have any power over her, but it struck her as odd that Gaara didn't acknowledge the Kazekage, considering he was his village's leader.

When the Kazekage left, the three sand shinobi got up and went in the Hokage's office, leaving Ren alone in the hall. Quite frankly, she enjoyed her moment of solitude. That moment was broken, however, when a lot more foreign ninja came to the hall, also waiting to see the Hokage. Some were alone, and others were with their teams. Ren figured they were all here for the same reason as her: delivering the letter of admission for the chunin exams. It was a procedure used to find out just which shinobi of those registered were able to make it, and who was missing, or simply decided not to take the exams.

A few minutes later, the sand siblings come out of the Hokage's office. As they left, Ren noticed Gaara catching a quick glance her way. She then got into the Hokage's office and delivered the letter Aoi-sensei entrusted to her.

**I thank semperxsomniare of deviantart, and Opal kunoichi and ****Hiroakki of for helping me.**


	2. Identify Yourself: Powerful New Rivals

"Here it is." Ren pointed to the large exam building. "Let's go in."

She gripped her papers tightly. They were her ticket to get into the exams.

She looked ahead to see a crowd formed around the door. She looked to Sakuya. She could feel the chakra in front of them too. Someone was using a jutsu, powerful but not too powerful.

"Hey, let us through!" A boy yelled.

A boy in green spandex was roughly shoved to the ground. He had nasty bruises and cuts on him. He had a bowl cut and bushy eyebrows.

Shachi pointed his chin to two shinobi blocking the entrance to the exams. This got Ren and Sakuya's attentions on them. One of them, who had a red nose, addressed the boy in the green jumpsuit. "You're taking the chunin exams but you can't even get past us?"

The other one didn't lose time to continue the provocation. "Why don't you just give up now before you get hurt?"

"Yeah, I think I hear your mommy calling you," the guy with the red nose said, mockingly.

A girl with brown hair made up in two round buns on each side of her head, who was helping the thick browed ninja, got up and tried to confront the two shinobi at the entrance, as nicely as possible. "Please let us through, we're supposed to go in there!"

As she got closer, the two shinobi punched her, causing her to fall on the ground next to the previous victim.

"Alright, that's it. I was going to stay quiet, but you do not hit a girl without any valid reason and get away with it!" Shachi was starting to get mad at their attitudes, and he started getting closer, but Sakuya held him back.

"You think that's harsh? Don't kid yourself, we're being nice by comparison. The exams will make this look like a picnic."

Sakuya quietly whispered to Shachi to calm down. "Besides, they've put a genjutsu on this floor, this is not even the floor we're supposed to be in."

Sakuya had noticed that this was actually only the second floor. They were supposed to check in on the third floor. She would point it out, but she preferred to observe how long it'll take until someone noticed.

"Some of you won't survive the exams... others will be wreaked for life and some of you may go crazy..." the boy continued.

Ren sighed. This guy was making quite the speech a real monologe. She could tell he was enjoying every minute of it. She knew it was only to scare the weaker shinobi away. A few left right then and there. They were too weak if they hadn't seen though his ruse yet. The game he was playing was getting old, and fast. Ren had already lost interest in it.

"For Chunin, it's always life and death. I think it's a joke? Chunin are qualified to lead missions. The lives of your squad members are in your hands, so you better be tough enough to take the heat. Delicate little girls don't belong here." He snorted. "We're just pinning out the herd. You won't pass anyway, so go home and play with your dolls."

"These guys are pissing me off…" Shachi muttered. "If nobody's going to say something about the genjutsu, let's just do it ourselves and get this over with."

Shachi started walking towards the shinobi, ready to unmask the whole genjutsu deception, but a raven-haired guy beat him to it. Looking more closely, Ren recognized him as the Uchiha boy from earlier.

"Real nice speech. Now both of you step aside and let me through. And while you're at it, reverse the genjutsu. We can see through your illusion anyway. We're going to the third floor," Sasuke said in a know-it-all tone of voice.

A few shinobi around were confused as to what Sasuke was saying. "So many of them didn't know about this genjutsu," Ren said to Sakuya, "are they really strong enough for this exam?"

"Don't know…" Sakuya replied. "But we shouldn't judge them just by that. It is very possible that they are weak against genjutsu, but that doesn't mean that they lack in all the other fields."

"Well, well…" One of the shinobi standing at the door said, in reply to Sasuke.  
>"So, you noticed the genjutsu, huh?"<p>

Sasuke smiled in victory, and addressed his female teammate. "Go ahead, tell them Sakura. I'm sure you saw it before anyone else did."

"Huh?" Sakura replied, apparently lost as to what Sasuke just said.

"She must've been clueless this whole time about it until Sasuke actually mentioned it…" Ren whispered to her teammates.

"You have the sharpest eyes, and the analytical skills on our squad. You must've seen this coming a mile away," Sasuke insisted, trying to make his teammate look good.

"I must have…? Well sure, of course. Sure! I spotted it right away! This is only the second floor," Sakura said in an overly proud tone.

"You're kidding me…" Ren sighed in annoyance. She never liked people who tried to look good in front of others, especially when they had to lie about it.

"Right!" Naruto retorted out of nowhere, trying to follow along his teammates. That Naruto knew something about Haku. Was he involved in Haku death? Ren asked herself that since she figured out that he had seen him recently. For now though, she had to concentrate on the chunin exams.

The two shinobi undid the genjutsu, and the sign that said third floor, changed to second floor.

"Well aren't we the smart ones," the ninja with the red nose said, "so you noticed an illusion." He sniffed. "Let's see you deal with this!"

Before anyone could process what had happened, Sasuke and the red nosed shinobi were stopped in mid-kick by the green jumpsuit ninja from earlier.

"Whoa… Wasn't he the one who was beaten up earlier?" Shachi exclaimed.

"Like I said," Sakuya replied, "you shouldn't judge people's skills based on one factor."

"He's… fast…" Ren muttered.

Then one of the boy's teammates glared at him. He had long hair, an odd cap-like head band that covered his entire head, minus his hair. His tan jacket almost made him blend in with the wall. Ren had almost missed him had he not said something. He would be a good man to have on a team when one was preforming an assassination. He had the makings of a good shinobi being as silent as he was. It was almost unnerving to see the blank look on his face. What unnerved Ren the most was his white pupiless eyes.

"Hey… what happened to the plan? I thought you were the one who said to keep a low profile and don't let anyone see our skill level!" The boy said.

"I know, but-"

"Never mind, it's over, forget it..." His female teammate sighed.

While his two teammates were talking, the boy in the green jumpsuit was starting, and blushing at Sakura. He then got closer to Sakura, and introduced himself.

"My name is Rock Lee. You are Sakura, right?"

"Huh?" Sakura replied with a confused look on her face.

"Please be my girlfriend! I vow to protect you with my life!"

At what Rock Lee said, Shachi couldn't help himself but snort out of amusement.

"Why are we even sticking around for this…?" Sakuya sighed.

Ren was actually pretty entertained by his straightforwardness and courage. She wished she could be like that all the time.

"Definitely… not." Sakura replied to Lee's confession of love.

Rock Lee looked shocked and sad at the same time when he heard her reply. "Why?"

"Because you're a weirdo," Sakura answered.

Lee looked down, in a depressed manner. Naruto laughed at it. Ren was starting to get annoyed at how Sakura just totally dissed Rock Lee like that, after he mustered up the courage to confess. Naruto laughing at him didn't help her annoyed mood either.

"Hey, no need to be so harsh with the guy," Ren said in a clear voice. Her teammates weren't that surprised this time that she talked. She usually does when she's annoyed at someone, or something unfair in her eyes happened.

All eyes turned to her, and Ren suddenly realized that she said that pretty loud.

"Hey! You're that girl from before!" Naruto exclaimed.

Ren didn't show any reaction, still recovering from the shock of how loud her own voice was. Her thoughts were interrupted by the white eyed boy who approached Sasuke, calling him out.

"Hey you, over here. What's your name?"

Naruto, upon hearing this, immediately got depressed and joined in Lee's mood. This made Ren giggle despite herself. They both looked at her with exaggerated tears in their eyes.

"My apologies…" She shyly said, "I didn't mean to laugh at you… It's just, you looked so alike, I couldn't help myself."

"Let's go Ren," Sakuya said from behind her, "we've wasted enough time as it is."

Ren turned around and followed Sakuya and Shachi, who went up to the third floor.

"This is the right floor this time," Shachi sighed.

"Let's get this over with," Sakuya mumbled while opening the door to the classroom they're supposed to wait in.

Ren followed her teammates who found an empty spot to sit in. She noticed how a lot shinobi were already there. And that still wasn't all of them. She spotted the three sand siblings sitting a little further away. They still had thirty minutes before the start of the first exam. Ren wondered just what was waiting for her next.

**I thank Hiroakki of for helping me.**


	3. The Chunin Exam Begins!

After a while of sitting there and waiting for something to happen, Ren noticed how Naruto's team finally came in. She wondered why they took so long. They sure were loud though… It seemed like they knew a lot of other Leaf genin. Soon though, Ren lost interest in whatever they had to say. She directed her attention to Gaara.

Something about him was familiar. But how… She was pretty sure she never met him before. At least, she doesn't remember ever meeting him before. While deep in her thoughts, a shout from the front of the classroom caught her off guard.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm gonna beat every one of you! Believe it!"

"Is that guy crazy?" Shachi mumbled.

"If you ask me, he's trying to get himself killed," Sakuya said nonchalantly.

Ren watched as he got reprimanded by his teammates, and his fellow Leaf shinobi.

Suddenly, the Sound ninja with the word "death" on his shirt jumped up and threw knives at the grey-haired shinobi who dodged only to run into another Sound ninja. His face cocked to his right side, mouth wrapped up in layers of bandages with very long sleeves. He swung his right arm at a guy with glasses which had a large metal object on it with a few holes. He dodged thinking everything was fine but then, his glasses broke. He took them off and examined them when suddenly, he threw up.

Ren didn't bother to pay attention. Something about him was just off. Men like the guy made her sick. It was like he had the personalty of a snake, and she hated those things.

Just then, a huge cloud of white smoke erupted at the front of the classroom, and a strong voice sounded. "Alright you worthless bastards, pipe down and listen up!"

As the smoke faded, a very robust looking ninja with a lot of scars all over his face appeared with a few other shinobi, who looked like chunin.

"It's time to begin. I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor, and from this moment, your worst enemy."

Ren's eyes narrowed as she paid attention to what the proctor had to say.

"First," The man pointed his finger at the Sound ninja. "You candidates from the Village Hidden in the Sound! Knock it off! Who told you, you could fight? You want to be failed before we've even begun?!"

"Sorry, It's our first time. Guess we were a little jumpy, sir," the guy in the bandages said smoothly.

"Hmph, I'll say this once, so listen up!" he continued, "There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking each other without the permission of your proctor. And even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited! Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?"

One of the three sound ninja scoffed. "No fatal force? That's no fun."

The proctor completely ignored what the sound ninja said, and addressed all of the candidates. "Now, if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin exam. Hand over your paperwork, in return you will each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you are all seated."

"A written exam?" Shachi said. "I wasn't prepared for this!"

"Oh, come on. It can't be that bad," Sakuya retorted.

"I'm pretty sure you and Ren will ace it," Shachi mumbled, "but you know how my brain just doesn't digest words on paper! Especially when these words are problems to solve…"

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Ren patted him on the shoulder.

Once they all got into the room and sat down, Ren could feel everyone's nervousness. She nearly drowned in a sea of anxiety and fear, but she kept a calm face.

Then she noticed she was sitting next to Gaara. Something about him seemed different than most shinobi she'd seen. Like there was loneliness in his eyes whenever he looked at her. She felt like she had seen that before, but she couldn't remember.

Gaara turned his head to look at her. To him, Ren was different as well. She never showed any fear of him, she spoke only to him. It seemed like she kept all her emotions to herself. But he felt like they meet somewhere before, but it was all fuzzy.

They stared at eachother for a long time, with their eyes calm.

Shachi was pretty nervous about having a written test for a Chunin exam. He was the goofball of the team, and preferred fighting then thinking things through.

Sakuya, on the other hand, was the smartest one in the team, and she knew she wouldn't have any problem.

The papers were handed out, face-down on the desk in front of each shinobi. Ibiki Morino then called everyone's attention to the front, to explain the procedures and the rules of the exam, and that he wouldn't answer any questions. It was then that Ren and Gaara finally broke off their eye contact.

Ibiki started to write on the board. "Alright, rule number one is this. The written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin the test with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven."

Shachi mumbled to himself, "And if you miss ten your final score will be zero..."

"Rule number two, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members."

This rule shocked every one. Things were getting trickier.

"What?! Wait a second! You're saying we all get scored as a team?!" Sakura cried out.

Ren narrowed her eyes. That girl was getting more annoying all the time. But then again, that rule worried her too... Written tests weren't really Shachi's thing.

"Silence!" Ibiki yelled. "I have my reasons. So shut up and listen! Rule number three, the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score."

Every eye staring at the genin was bringing more tension.

"Be warned," the proctor continued. "Their eyes are extremely sharp. And if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored."

Sakuya was thinking that there were all kinds of ways to lose points, and it would get worse for Shachi.

"Anyone foolish enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here."

"I've got my eye on you guys," one of the Jonin told them.

The Genin who was the closest to him flinched back. Ren just nodded at him. Some how, she knew that he was one of the ones pretending to be a Genin. He nodded back, knowingly.

"If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be," Ibiki added. "One more thing, if any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails."

The whole room was sent into another wave of fear. Ren thought Ibiki was acting like they were on a mission. Shachi was getting more and more horrified. If he scored a zero, his team would pay for it.

"The final question won't be giving out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period. You'll have one hour total. BEGIN!"

Ren looked down at the test. The questions caught her off guard slightly. They were way too hard for any normal Genin to figure out.

She maybe knew the answers to about two or at most three of these problems. She knew Sakuya would be able to ace this, so that already gave them the nine points of these nine problems. As for Shachi, it'd be a miracle if he actually got one of these right.

She took a quick glance around her, and notice how some shinobi were starting to attempt cheating, like a dog barking to a hooded boy, sending out a beetle, and adjusting the mirrors on the skylight. Why would they cheat? Weren't they afraid of getting caught? Ren tried to focus back her attention on the questions in front of her.

She easily answered the two first ones. She then started to notice how they started becoming much harder as she went on. She then noticed particles of sand starting to accumulate on top of her paper. After a few seconds, an eye formed, and started staring at her answers. She looked at Gaara, and found him concentrating on writing down the answers he saw on her paper.

Instead of stopping him, Ren felt like she wanted to help him, so she put her arms around the paper, hiding Gaara's eye from the sentinels, and the proctor. Surprised by her act, Gaara stole a glance at her. She gave him a little smile, and he went back to writing down the answers.

On Sakuya's side, she was already done with the exam. Luckily, she was sitting right behind Shachi. She had quickly figured out that the point of this test was to cheat. The only catch was to not get caught. She decided to help Shachi out, considering they couldn't afford to have a member on their team score a zero.

Using her ice release, she spelled out the answers on Shachi's paper. He then started writing them down right away. She would've done the same to Ren, but she was sitting way too far. It would've been way too obvious if she had helped her from this distance.

Ren was stuck on the third problem. She didn't know what to do about it. She started looking around, and found that now most of the class was cheating in a lot of different ways. Some of them were starting to get caught. A lot started to get eliminated.

That's when she finally figured it out. She was supposed to cheat. She just had to make sure not to get caught. She noticed Gaara was now cheating off another person who seemed to know all the answers somehow.

She waited until Gaara was done cheating off him, and she started focusing her chakra. The answers were written in ink, and water was a major component of ink. Considering she was able to manipulate water any way she wanted, she started focusing on the answers written on the person's test sheet.

Since Gaara had temporarily blinded the ninja to cheat off his paper, Ren seized the opportunity, and quickly took the ink off his paper, transferring it to her own. She literally stole the words off his paper. Now she had all the answers written down on her paper, and all that was left to do was wait for the final question.

**I thank Hiroakki of for helping me.**


	4. The Tenth Question: All or Nothing!

Twenty minutes later Ibiki started talking again, "Now that we've weeded out most of the hopeless cases, fifteen minutes to go. Time for the main event. Alright! Listen up. Here's the tenth and final question! But before I give you the question. . .there are some more rules that you need to be aware of."

His speech was disturbed by Kankuro with his scarecrow disguised as a proctor walking in. "Ah, made it just in time. I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening..." Kankuro had a disturbed look on his face. "Well... Take your seat."

As Kankuro passed Temari's desk, he dropped a small capsule.

Ibiki continued, "These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you."

Everyone fell silent. They were all nervous again. Except for Gaara and Ren. Their emotions were in check.

"Very well then, rule number one!" Ibiki yelled, causing the class to jump, "Each one of you is free to chose not to be given the final question. It's you decision."

"There's probably a catch," Ren thought.

Temari, was probably also thinking the same thing, since she questioned the proctor right away. She exclaimed, "Whoa, so what's the catch? Let's say we decide we don't want to do it, what happens then?"

The proctor chuckled, "If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail. And that means, of course, both your teammates fail as well."

"Well then, there's really no reason not to take that final question, right?" Ren thought.

Most of the other shinobi around the classroom were whispering about how it was ridiculous to choose to not take the final question.

"Not so fast," Ibiki Morino said in a low voice, "you didn't let me finish."

An air of tension was floating in the classroom. The proctor continued what he had to say. "If you do accept the question, and answer incorrectly, you will not only fail, you will banned from taking the chunin exam ever again!"

"What?" Shachi exclaimed.

Ren quietly gasped. This caused Gaara to turn his attention towards her. She looked nervous. He didn't get why she was. For him, this was all just a meaningless waste of time.

"Hey, that's bull man! That's ridiculous!" A boy with a puppy shouted, while standing up and pointing at the proctor. That boy was sitting right next to Shachi.

"I agree!" Shachi also got up and pointed at the proctor.

"They seem to have pretty similar charactersitics," Sakuya wondered.

"And besides, there's lots of people here who've taken the exam before!" The boy continued.

Ibiki started to chuckle. "I guess you're just unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now. Of course if you don't want to take it, you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year. Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't want to take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go."

It took a little while, but a few people did get up and quit, followed by their teams. When Ren got herself together, she thought it was pathetic. What kind of shinobi were they if they couldn't take a little risk or two?

Suddenly, Naruto slammed his fist down on the desk.

"Don't underestimate me!" He yelled, "I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You guys aren't going to scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage some day!"

Ren smiled to herself. "He might be a fool. But he does have true fighting spirit. I'll give him that," she thought.

"This decision is one that can change your life," the proctor said, "for any reason, if you'd rather quit, now's your last chance."

"No way, I never go back on my word. That's the way of the ninja," Naruto retorted.

Naruto's words seemed to give all those who stayed newly found confidence, including Ren.

The proctor scanned the classroom with his eyes, checking if there was anybody that was still thinking of quitting. Since it seemed there was nobody that even showed a bit of wavering, Ibiki decided to move on. "Well then, I admire your determination, nothing else. For those of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do. And that's for me to tell you… That you've all passed the first exam!"

Silence reigned through the classroom. The remaining candidates were still trying to process what had just happened.

"What…?" Ren whispered.

"Wha… Hold on! What just happened? What do you mean we passed? Where's the tenth question?" Sakura said, confused.

Ibiki laughed, and then smiled at the candidates. "There never was one! Not a written one, at least. Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Huh?" Sakura said with a confused look.

"I'm confused, too…" Ren mumbled to no one in particular.

"Wait a second!" Temari exclaimed, causing everyone to turn their attention to her. "So the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time? Is that what you're saying?"

"No, no, not at all. Quite the opposite! The first nine questions had an important overriding purpose. To test your ability to quickly and efficiently gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances," the proctor quickly proceeded to explain.

"Oh, well that clears up everything…" Temari said, seemingly convinced.

"Let me explain. You see my objective was to test you not only as individuals, but as a team and how you functioned as a part of that team. That's why everything was scored on a team basis." Ibiki explained, "So you'd know that everything you did or failed to do would directly effect your teammates. I wanted to see how you handled the pressure."

Ren nodded. She was right about the quiz being too hard for any of them to solve on knowledge alone.

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any Genin to be expected to solve. I imagine that most of you came to the conclusion that you had to cheat for any chance of passing. The fact is, the test was designed to encourage cheating, it almost demanded it." Ibiki said. "Of course it would've done you little good unless you had someone to cheat from. So I disguised two Chunin, who already knew the answers, and have them sit in with you."

Two boys stood up, walked up to the side of the room and took a seat, smirking at the Genin.

"Those who were caught at it failed. Better to not cheat than to cheat clumsily." Ibiki said.

He reached for his headband. Slowly he untied it and let the cloth dangle in his hands. "Information. It can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather information can determine whether a mission is a success or a failure. There'll be times you'll have to risk your life to get it!"

Ren's eyes widened slightly at the sight.

Piddled burn marks, ruined veins, and rough punctured craters covered the top of the proctor's head. There was no hair to cover it up- Ren was unsure if any could even grow.

'What happened to him?' she wondered.

There was nervous murmuring around her from the other Genin. Gaara sat absolutely still beside her, seemingly uncaring. Ibiki tied the headband back on. "Of course, you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate." He glared out at them, warning in his eyes. "Always bear that in mind."

Sakuya squirmed. "Ach," she whispered. "That poor guy."

"Disinformation can be almost as bad as having no information at all," Ibiki continued. "It can lead to the death of comrades, or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat, in order to survive." He smirked. "And that's why those who weren't good enough were weeded out, leaving the rest of you."

"Okay..." Temari said, not quite sarcastically, eyes almost narrowed in confusion. "But I'm still not getting what the whole tenth question thing was about."

"You're not?" Ibiki raised his hands. "The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam! Surely you see that."

"Uh... sure, but explain it anyway!" Sakura demanded.

"As I said before," Ibiki said, putting his hands in his pockets. "The goal was to test you not only as individuals but as part of a squad. The final question gave you two choices," Ibiki raised two fingers. "Both difficult. You could choose to play it safe and skip the question, though it meant that you and your teammates would be failed. Or you could try and answer it, though if you got it wrong, you could lose your chance of ever becoming chunin. It was a no win situation."

No murmuring this time, just a taut silence.

"Which is just the sort Chuunin have to face every day." Ibiki began to walk up and down the isles. "For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission. To steal a document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has, or how heavily armed they are. Furthermore, you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you, and you might very well be walking blindly into a trap. Now, you have an option of taking a pass on this insane mission, of saying my comrades and I would live to see another day; would you choose to avoid danger?" He paused. "No!"

Ren wondered if this mission was one that he had actually been on. The look on his face suggested he was thinking back on a memory.

"There will be many missions that will seem almost suicidal if you think about it. But you do not think about it. You think only of the goal, and make it through with courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a chuunin squad leader. Those who choose the safer of two paths... those whose determination falters in the face of adversity... those who would put their comrades' lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own... those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor... will never be able to call themselves chuunin, at least as long as I'm here! As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I've put to you. You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this part of the chuunin selection exam completed!"

Ren smiled, 'I like this guy. He knows what he's talking about,' she thought.

Suddenly, a black object broke threw a window. Two kunai knives came out and stabbed the ceiling. The black object opened up to reveal a woman inside. As she stopped rolling, the black object she was in flattened to show a big sign that said "Here comes the Second Test's Proctor Anko Mitarashi".

The woman was tall, her long black hair pulled in a bun with the ends sticking out mostly on her right side. Her headband on her forehead but mostly covered by her long bangs. She wore the fishnet undergarment that most ninja wore, a mini-skirt, the normal sandals, with a large overcoat.

"Heads up, boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi!" The woman yelled. She punched the air and continued yelling, "You ready for the second test?"

No one responded. Anko smiled. "Good, then let's go! Follow me!"

The room was silent, no one moved as they stared at this crazy examination officer. Ibiki had been hidden behind her big sign but was now peeking around it. "You're early... Again..."

Anko looked embarrassed.

Ooh! Sexy!' Shachi thought, grinning to himself.

"How many are there? Ibiki... You let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy. You must be getting soft," Anko said.

Ibiki smiled at her. "Or could it be a stronger crop of candidates this year."

Anko raised an eyebrow, questioning Ibiki's statement. "Hmmm... They sure don't look it. Trust me... Before I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated. Humph, this is going to be fun. Alright, you maggots have had it easy so far, but things are going to be different from the first thing tomorrow morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you're going to meet me. Dismissed."

Ren walked out of the classroom with Sakuya and Shachi.

"It looks like it's going to be pretty hectic tomorrow, so we should get some rest," Shachi said.

"For once, you're making sense," Sakuya replied.

Ren kept looking behind her, trying to see where Gaara was. His team was already out, but he didn't look like he was with them. Ren was a little concerned.

"Ren, are you okay?" Sakuya asked her.

Ren looked a little surprised, but regained composure. "Yes, I'm fine... I just need to go do something. You guys go ahead, I'll join you later."

Before Shachi and Sakuya could say anything, Ren had already bolted out of the building. She went up on the Academy's roof, trying to survey all the people who were coming out. She felt the need to talk to Gaara. She wanted to know why she felt so attached to him. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts, that she didn't notice the presence of another ninja behind her, on the roof. That ninja was observing her, also wondering about her. He remembered her, but she didn't seem to fully remember him. He wanted to talk to her, but, at the same time, he was afraid she'd betray like everyone else. He decided to quietly slip away, leaving her to her thoughts.

After a few hours of standing on the roof surveying the people who came out of the Academy, Ren gave up on trying to find Gaara.

'Well, I need to go back to Sakuya and Shachi soon, or I'll never hear the end of it,' she thought to herself.

She got back to their lodging place, and they started getting ready for the next day.

At night, it was raining. Ren stood under the rain since she liked it. Her favorite was the cold rain that fell in mid winter, just before it turned into snow. It reminded her of her cousin Haku.

'Maybe tomorrow, I'll find out how he died,' she thought.

Then, she heard somebody coming from behind her. She turned swiftly to see it was the big guy from the Sand team.

**I thank Hiroakki for helping me. Sorry about the wait. Busyness.**


End file.
